AP Photo/Jeff Gentner

Regular readers, lurkers and commenters have come to find that the most popular topic to argue lately has been which conference is better in college basketball.  We all know that it is really the Big 10, but it is much more entertaining to argue between the Big East and the ACC (actually, it is just really fun to watch Patphish and GITC go back and forth every single time the discussion comes up).

This isn’t something that only Sparty & Friends argues about, but the talking heads at ESPN discuss it each Saturday on College Gameday.  You hear the same arguments from them as you do from us (something tells me we will be reading them again soon).  You know, RPI, SOS, # of teams in the Top 25, or who will get more teams into the tourney.  My personal favorite is seeing who has the most teams get the furthest in the tourney. That is a much better indicator of quality depth, IMHO.

Anyway, that is common place stuff that you get to read all the time.  But what do the player’s and coaches think?  The Sporting News was able to grab a couple interviews and that topic came up.

First was an interview with Terrance Williams of Lousiville (prior to their blowout loss to Notre Dame ).

Q: Where do you stand on the debate about which conference–the Big East or ACC–is college basketball’s best?

A: The Big East. I don’t know how you could even ask that. That’s easy. That’s not even a question.

Q: Why is that?

A: Look how physical we are. The ACC, that’s not physical. Our last-place team in the Big East could win in the ACC. We’re the toughest conference.

Q: What’s the best team you’ve faced this season?

A: That’s easy, Connecticut. We lost to them.

Not sure I completely agree with the his second answer, but I can go along with the Big East being a more physical conference, which does matter in March.  UConn is the best team.

The rest of the Terrance Williams interview .  Now players talk a lot of junk,  But what about a coach?  Enter Bobby Huggins.

Crossman: It’s a good year for the Big East this year, don’t you think?

Huggins: A good year? Try maybe the best conference in history. (No word if Bobby is drinking again)

SN: Really?

BH: Our top 12 teams are unbelievable.

SN: How do you prepare to play in a conference that good?

BH: It’s hard. That’s why we beat each other up. Everybody’s saying Connecticut is one of the favorites to win a national championship. A lot of people think Pitt’s the same way. You just go through the top people in our league–if Marquette gets the right matchups, Marquette’s a Final Four team. Villanova has everybody back from a Sweet 16 team, and nobody even talks about them. They’re good.

SN: You guys are 16-7, and you must be having a hard time keeping your head above water.

BH: We are. It’s an unbelievable league.

Here is more of the Bobby Huggins goodness.

I will just sit back and enjoy some of the responses.

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